The dysfunctional United States Senate has been held hostage by Republicans willing to misuse the filibuster to maintain minority control. Harry Reid finally said Enough and promised to change the filibuster rules if the Senate did not confirm President Obama's seven nominees to fill positions in his administrative team.
One of those nominees, Richard Cordray, has been waiting 700 days for confirmation as Director of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- or rather it was new three years ago and has gone without yet having a properly confirmed director, because Republicans don't like the agency.
Reid allowed Repubs a face-saving compromise that avoided the "Nuclear Option" of changing the rules. The Democrats agreed that the two nominees for the Labor Relations Board will be replaced when their term expires. President Obama had installed them as recess appointments when Repubicans refused to even vote on their confirmation.
The perverse pattern here is that the Repubs are holding up confirmations, not out of objection to the individuals, but because they don't like the agencies or because they just want to thwart Obama.
Elizabeth Warren, more than anyone, planned, designed, got this agency ready to operate. But she was not even nominated because of Republican opposition even to giving her a hearing. The irony is that, in these three years, she has successfully run and been elected to the senate. She was given the privilege today by her colleagues of presiding over the session and announcing Cordray's successful confirmation.
Ralph
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